The rituals evolved around Valentine’s Day are vast and varied, but where do these rituals come from? Why exactly do we give each other chocolate, cards and flowers? Who was this Valentine guy, anyway?
Valentine’s Day springs from the Roman festival of Lupercalia. Rather than chocolate and conversation hearts, the holiday originally included gently slapping women with the skin of a slaughtered goat, in order to make them more fertile for the coming year. Early Christians attempted to de-paganize the festival by declaring Feb. 14th St. Valentine’s Day.
There are multiple Christian saints named Valentine, and there is still debate as to which one the holiday is actually named for. One Saint Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome who performed marriages for young lovers in secret despite the fact these marriages were not legal under Emperor Claudius II. He was put to death for his actions.
Another legend states that a different St. Valentine helped Christians escape the brutal conditions of Roman prisons, and that the first “Valentine” was a letter he wrote to his jailor’s daughter, who he had fallen in love with. He was also put to death for his actions (a common hazard in those days.) Despite his messy end(s), St. Valentine was one of the more popular saints in France and England by the time the Middle Ages rolled around.
The oldest known written valentine dates from the year 1415, and was actually written in prison (quite fitting, depending on which St. Valentine one believes in). Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote the valentine to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. In it, he writes “God forgives him who has estranged Me from you for the whole year. I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine.” He never saw her read it; she died while he was in prison.
In the United States, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the early 1700s. American friends and lovers exchanged handmade cards until Esther A. Howland began mass-producing cards in the 1840s. The “traditional” dozen red roses are also mass-produced; mostly in Columbia and Ecuador. While roses have been symbols of affection since Victorian times, their current popularity probably has something to do with their hardiness. Like carnations, refrigerated roses can be shipped across the hemispheres to provide fresh blooms to flower shops in the U.S. within a couple of days.
Not all Valentine’s Day traditions are so new, however. Chocolate has been eaten by humans for at least three millennia, possibly more, and the idea of giving it out to fuel romantic desire has been around since the Aztec Empire. Emperor Montezuma apparently popped cocoa beans “to fuel his romantic trysts.” The Aztecs also used the cocoa bean in religious rituals, fed it in liquid form to their human sacrifice victims, and used it for money. Today, there are 58 million pounds of chocolate purchased every Valentine’s Day. The Aztecs would be proud.
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Every year, we publish a Valentine’s Day edition of our Voice section in order to bring the spirit of love to campus. We’re excited to bring you a number of articles (some serious, some satirical) dedicated to sex, relationships, the history of Valentine’s Day and more.
Should you plan to celebrate this day of romance with someone, be sure to stay safe and practice healthy sexual habits – and if you’re planning on cuddling up alone or with friends to watch movies and eat discount chocolates, that works perfectly, too. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to have fun.
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